Less than a minute in, Joe Pavelski’s shot changed direction off a CH defender and past Carey Price to give San Jose a 2-1 lead. Seven minutes later, during a power play, Tomas Hertl tucked the puck past Price on the short side.

Shea Weber scored on a Canadiens power play 10:37 into the middle period to revive CH hopes. But not three minutes later, Logan Couture scored his second of the game on a power play.

The home team had 20 SoG during the second period.

The game began with two goals in 15 seconds: Couture had a wide-open net to Price’s right to open the scoring. It took 15 seconds for Arthur Lehkonen to set up Jonathan Drouin for the tying goal, blowing a laser past Martin Jones.

Joe Thornton scored an empty-netter to complete another futile visit to San Jose.

Shots were 35-30 for the home team.

]]>http://www.hockeyinsideout.com/boone/liveblog-canadiens-at-san-jose-4/feed19522685712CouturePriceAbout last night … Leafs edge CH 4-3 in Overtimehttp://www.hockeyinsideout.com/boone/about-last-night-leafs-edge-ch-4-3-in-overtime
http://www.hockeyinsideout.com/boone/about-last-night-leafs-edge-ch-4-3-in-overtime#commentsSun, 15 Oct 2017 02:35:08 +0000http://www.hockeyinsideout.com/?p=91750A Number 1 draft choice played like a first overall first rounder … which has happened a lot since Auston Matthews began what is shaping up as a Hall of Fame career in the NHL.

Premature plaudits for the Leafs’ sophomore sensation?

OK, but Matthews – two goals on three shots, 9-4 in the face-off circle and a dangerous presence on every shift – was the difference Saturday night in a game the Canadiens played well enough to win.

But they didn’t.

Frederik Andersen, who looked skittish early on, made 13 saves in the third period to maintain a 3-3 tie and set up Matthews’ heroics.

And the Canadiens – who outshot the visitors in every period and played well enough to win – instead will head for California with a 1-3-1 record – five points behind Atlantic Division leaders Toronto, Tampa Bay and Detroit.

Before agonizing about what is a perennial Death Valley swing through the West Coast, shall we focus on some positives in Saturday’s game?

• Artturi Lehkonen solidified his position beside Jonathan Drouin and Max Pacioretty on the Canadiens’ top line.

• Victor Mete – six blocked shots and very few mistakes in 22:26 – solidified his status as Shea Weber’s junior partner.

• Rather than sulk through fourth-line duty, Alex Galchenyuk hustled on almost every shift and scored a sweet goal.

• Charles Hudon had four shots on goal, four hits and, once again, looked at home with Phillip Danault and Andrew Shaw.

• Karl Alzner makes us marginally less nervous about Jeff Petry.

• They have no size, which could make for challenging match-ups against the California behemoths, but Paul Byron and Brendan Gallagher have resuscitated ageless Tomas Plekanec.

• First goals of the young season for Drouin, Galchenyuk and the Canadiens’ power play.

Did I forget any positives?

On to the other side of the ledger:

• Brandon Davidson was decent, but Jordie Benn’s season is off to a rough start.

• The Canadiens were outhit 33-21 and the Leafs seemed to win most of the board battles.

• Drouin was 3-13 on face-offs.

• And then there’s the goaltender …

Yes, there have been big saves and flashes of brilliance.

But the Canadiens, as currently constructed, need stellar play every night from the guy who eats up $10.5 million of their salary cap.

Simply put, through five games Carey Price has not been Carey Price.

And unless their heretofore All-World goaltender recaptures the form that justified that gargantuan contract, this team will miss the playoffs.

And deprive us of what might be a great Toronto-Montreal series.

• • •

Comment on the Liveblog by xman4227:

Boys played good for the most part tonight. Mete was awesome. Hemsky was invisible. Chucky got the goal but still not out of the dog house.

I’m seeing in the comments what I’ve been saying for awhile. Price is not playing up to his label of the “best goalie in the world”. He has never stepped up to steal games in the playoffs. Up to now his solid regular season play has overshadowed that fact and given him some slack but now its bleeding into regular season play. His team badly outshot the other, once again, on a night that the Habs were supposed to lose 6-0 if you watch TSN or listen to Leaf homers. It wasn’t the forwards or defence that let the team down (weak back check in OT by Byron, notwithstanding). It was Price’s inability to make the key saves. He’s not making the saves a goalie in his pay grade should be making. Lundqvist, Crawford, Holtby and now Andersen have all outplayed our “star” goalie.

Poor decision to match up a shut down trio against Mathews and Nylander instead of an all out offensive line like Mete, Drouin and Chucky/Patches.

From Fleur:

Is Max Pac ever going to go to the net to try and score or is his speciality of firing from the parking lot (as Knuckles would say) the only trick in his bag? So far this year I can count at least a half dozen times when he is coming down the wing, with room, and could make a pass, cycle back, drive the net. Instead he fires it right into the old bread basket. Instant stoppage in play. I know he’s not Guy Lafleur but he does have size and could use that to his advantage. He needs a little Brendan Gallagher in him. Now with 3 games out west, one win in their first eight is staring them right in the face. Those types of starts are very hard to rectify. Good teams find a way to win games like tonight. Bad teams find a way to lose them.

Last word to Trade Patches:

Carey’s knees are worse than mgmt is saying.Big Defense but too slow for new NHL. Patches is officially the worst captain in the league.Hemsky. Not good enough to work the gate.CJ is clueless and MB isn’t much better.Long season ahead for Habs fans.

Jonathan Drouin’s first goal as a Canadian gave the CH a 3-2 lead 11 minutes into the second period. But 70 seconds later, Patrick Marleau pushed a loose puck past Carey Price to make it 3-3.

Jeff Petry blew a Jonathan Drouin feed past Frederik Andersen to open the scoring, 2:19 into the game. The Canadiens dominated the early going but needed a spectacular Price save on Mitch Marner to keep the visitors off the board, seven minutes in.

Shortly thereafter, a James van Riemsdyk knuckler beat Price from close in to tie it up. That goal had just been announced when Matthews – who’d had a goal disallowed – danced through the Canadiens “defence” and beat Price with a wrister.

On the second wave of a Canadiens power play, 17 minutes in, Alex Galchenyuk beat Andersen with a laser to tie it at 2-2.

Shots were 34-22 for the home team.

]]>http://www.hockeyinsideout.com/boone/liveblog-toronto-at-canadiens-5/feed4972684252AlznerLeafsAbout last night …http://www.hockeyinsideout.com/boone/about-last-night-386
http://www.hockeyinsideout.com/boone/about-last-night-386#commentsWed, 11 Oct 2017 02:48:24 +0000http://www.hockeyinsideout.com/?p=91717Yes, it’s still early in the season.

But man, this is getting tired already.

As was the case at Madison Square Garden Sunday night, the Canadiens dominated the first period of their home opener Tuesday night.

And they even got a goal this time!

From Tomas Plekanec!!!

For the first 18 minutes of the game, there was energy in the building … notwithstanding a lacklustre pre-opener show and numerous empty seats in the Bell Centre’s lower bowl.

But after Chicago struck twice in 19 seconds to take the lead at the end of the period, a sobering realization seemed to settle over the crowd:

Their team was trailing – and the 2017-’18 Canadiens are not a comeback team … at least not in the long season’s early going.

• Artturi Lehkonen to the top line with Max Pacioretty and Jonathan Drouin

• Plekanec centring Paul Byron and Brendan Gallagher

• Charles Hudon with Phillip Danault and Andrew Shaw.

• Alex Galchenyuk with Torrey Mitchell and a variety of wingers.

The shakeup generated some offence. Lehkonen and Hudon were particularly effective with their new linemates.

But Crawford has inherited Martin Brodeur’s role as the Canadiens’ Hometown Heartbreaker. The Chicago goaltender, a native of Chateauguay on Montreal’s south shore, made 16 saves over the game’s final 20 minutes.

There were chances. But as was the case through the Canadiens opening road trip, the team had no puck luck.

Two goals in regulation at Buffalo. One against the Capitals in Washington. A Henrik Lundqvist shutout – playoff déja vu – at Madison Square Garden.

And an early score – followed by 58:45 of ineptitude – in the home opener.

Claude Julien opened his postgame press conference with the unprofound observation that when a team doesn’t score, it doesn’t win.

“We don’t have the choice but to work our way out of this,” Julien added. “We don’t want excuses, we want solutions.”

“I still see potential in this team,” Julien said. “Once we turn it around, we’ll be fine.

The search for solutions will be challenging … at least in the near term.

The red-hot Leafs are at the Bell Centre. Then the Canadiens make an early-season visit to California, where the team has had as much success as Donald Trump.

“I still see potential in this team,” Julien said. “Once we turn it around, we’ll be fine.”

• The most succinct Comment on the Liveblog was from burnedprof:

Season is young but (Galchenyuk) has made more questionable passes than the USAF over the Korean peninsula

From habcertain:

Crawford played his usual great game, as he does against the Habs. They are a far better team.

So, we can’t score again, and Chucky plays with o zone pylons, and we are left to wonder what is wrong with Chucky. Even CHI figured out they needed an old/new playmate (Saad), the get Toews back on his offensive game, and we are talking about Toews.

We have JD/Max/Chucky with an outside of Lehks, and Hudon a little further back, who you need to build an goal scoring machine around this core. None of these guys should be playing without some combo of the others.

Mete needs to grow strong to play in this league as a Dman, let’s not waste good contract years and potential, he got schooled by a big team, let the boy learn with his peers.

We have been spoiled by the last 2 years of hot starts, I think we are being challenged early this year, will be interesting to see the pushback.

French Canadian homeboy to rev up the start, and we read about open seats, just win baby.

And finally from BC (Because of the Cats):

It’s the way we’re losing that makes me so angry. Lots of shots but no finish. And every game there’s at least one major defensive breakdown that leads to a goal. And Price is getting outplayed regularly.

I knew we’d have a rough start, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad. No goals, no great goaltending performance, a defence that can’t move the puck. It’s frustrating, it’s boring, it’s all but unwatchable.

]]>http://www.hockeyinsideout.com/boone/about-last-night-386/feed354ShawHawksLiveblog: Canadiens drop home opener 3-1 to Hawks.http://www.hockeyinsideout.com/boone/liveblog-chicago-at-canadiens-3
http://www.hockeyinsideout.com/boone/liveblog-chicago-at-canadiens-3#commentsTue, 10 Oct 2017 21:30:36 +0000http://www.hockeyinsideout.com/?p=91710The Canadiens dropped their third game in a row, stoned by homeboy Corey Crawford in the Chicago net.

The home team had a 42-25 shot advantage. But after being beaten early by Tomas Plekanec, Crawford was a wall.

But two goals late in the first period, by rookie Alex DeBrincat and Brandon Saad gave Chicago a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

Chicago owned the first half of the second period and, with Phillip Danault in the penalty box, got a tap-in goal by Artem Anisimov.

And that was all the scoring in a dispiriting home opener.

• • •

Comment by burnedprof:

the goalie was not full fare on the first one. the second one was a bad break off the linesman (but the goalie also committed too much puck side thereby leaving himself vulnerable to the cross-ice pass, as is his wont, as happened on the first). even so, the difference is either crawford or goalscoring. crawford brought his a-game (remember when our goalie did that) but the CH desperately need a game changing scorer. mind you, one mildly influential scorer would be nice right now.

]]>http://www.hockeyinsideout.com/boone/liveblog-chicago-at-canadiens-3/feed6002682259PriceScrambleLiveblog: Canadiens lose 2-0 to Rangers, go 0-for-weekendhttp://www.hockeyinsideout.com/boone/liveblog-canadiens-at-rangers-9
http://www.hockeyinsideout.com/boone/liveblog-canadiens-at-rangers-9#commentsSun, 08 Oct 2017 21:05:34 +0000http://www.hockeyinsideout.com/?p=91701Sloppy defensive play opened the door for Mika Zibanejad to score his fourth of the young season, making it 2-0 Rangers halfway through the third period.

A dirty goal late in the first period put the home team on the board. A Brady Skjei shot ticked in off Shea Weber to give the Rangers a lead they didn’t deserve.

The Canadiens had opened the scoring.

Twice.

And neither goal counted.

The Canadiens dominated the early action and had a goal disallowed when replay showed Andrew Shaw kicking the puck in off Henrik Lundqvist.

Not five minutes later, a Shea Weber howitzer blew past the Rangers goaltender. But Alain Vigneault successfully challenged again, with the ruling that Max Pacioretty had interfered with Lundqvist.

Washington got four goals from Alex Ovechkin, chased Carey Price after 20 minutes and cruised to a dismayingly easy W.

Even an Australian, Nathan Walker, got on the scoresheet for the dominant home team.

Paul Byron set up Brendan Gallagher for a shorthanded goal early in the second period to make it 4-1. The Canadiens came to life and had five shots on a subsequent power play, but Habs-killer Braden Holtby stopped everything.

Then, late in the period, Ovechkin scored his fourth, tapping the puck in off Victor Mete and past Al Montoya.

Yeah, Montoya. He replaced Carey Price after the first period, with the Caps up 4-0.

Washington scored three times in the game’s first three minutes.

Ovechkin got the Caps rolling 20 seconds in. T.J. Oshie and, on a power play, the Great 8 again put the CH in a deep hole.

Late in the period, after a futile Canadiens power play, Ovechkin tipped home Evgeny Kuznetsov’s shot to make it 4-0.

Shots were deceptively 38-23 for the team that got smoked.

PeterCH was not impressed:

Pretty sad. One period in the second game of the season does not condemn a team. However, this team through preseason and now to start the regular season clearly is lacking in NHL calibre talent. This iteration of the HABS is a direct result of an incompetent GM and an owner who has allowed him to slowly dismantle this once great and proud franchise. Shame Mr Molson!

]]>http://www.hockeyinsideout.com/boone/liveblog-canadiens-at-washington-5/feed5942680888ByronCapsLiveblog: Canadiens beat Buffalo 3-2 in Shootouthttp://www.hockeyinsideout.com/boone/liveblog-canadiens-at-buffalo-6
http://www.hockeyinsideout.com/boone/liveblog-canadiens-at-buffalo-6#commentsThu, 05 Oct 2017 21:30:08 +0000http://www.hockeyinsideout.com/?p=91673Jonathan Drouin scored the only goal of the Shootout to win it for the Canadiens.

Phillip Danault’s shorthanded goal tied the game at 2-2, midway through the third period.

Jack Eichel made a series of brilliant plays to set up a wide-open Jason Pominville early in the second period, restoring the home team’s lead.

The Canadiens killed 78 seconds of a 5-on-3 disadvantage.

With Tomas Plekanec in the penalty box, Jordie Benn turned the puck over and Pominville beat Carey Price with a rising backhand, 8:30 into the game.

As the first period wound down, a Buffalo turnover inside their zone led to a tic-tac-toe passing play: Gallagher to Drouin to Pacioretty for the typing goal.

It’s going to be a looooooooooooooong summer for Montreal hockey fans.

And, at the risk of getting way ahead of ourselves here, it could be a long 2017-’18 season.

Will it be Carey Price’s last in Montreal?

The goaltender’s contract has one more season. Next summer, Price is a UFA.

The Stanley Cup is the only championship Price hasn’t won.

Is his best shot at glory in bleu-blanc-rouge?

As we say in Quebec, pas évident.

Moving from the goaltender out, the Canadiens’ best young defenceman is supposed to be Nathan Beaulieu.

Nate the Great began the season as Shea Weber’s partner. He ended it in the Madison Square Garden press box.

The Canadiens’ best centre is supposed to be Alex Galchenyuk.

He ended the season on the wing, with Brian Flynn and Paul Byron.

The Canadiens’ leader is supposed to be their Captain.

Max Pacioretty won a fight in Game 6 – but that hardly compensates for zero goals and one measly assist in six games.

The Canadiens’ best young player, on the evidence of this playoff series, is Artturi Lehkonen.

I love the kid, but Connor McDavid he isn’t.

Their impressive regular-season performance – particularly under Claude Julien – notwithstanding, the Canadiens as currently constituted are not an elite NHL team.

They lasted longer in the postseason than Chicago, Columbus and, by a few hours, Minnesota.

But even had they found a way to solve Henrik Lundqvist and get past the Rangers, this team was not destined for a deep run.

They just don’t have the horses.

“We weren’t good enough, and that’s why we lost,” Claude Julien said during his postgame press conference. “But at the same time, I think there’s a lot of guys who put in a lot of effort, a lot of energy.

“At the end of it, it wasn’t good enough,” the coach added. “We needed more.”

But more was not forthcoming.

And David Desharnais is still playing.

So is Lars Eller.

So is Tom Pyatt, FFS.

And a defenceman in Nashville …

At least the Wild’s loss to St. Louis spared us Ryan White going deeper into the playoffs than his former teammates.

Marc Bergevin faces some tough decisions in the looooong off-season.

The Canadiens general manager will want to sign Alex Radulov. But for how much and for how long?

Will Bergevin trade Beaulieu? What can he get for him?

Will he re-sign Galchenyuk?

And what about his goaltender?

There will be plenty to talk about for Montreal’s 2 million coaches and general managers.

As the Ol’ Blogger’s final salvo of a long season, let me start a few arguments with this assertion:

The Leafs are closer than the Canadiens to a Stanley Cup.

And with the exception of Carey Price, there isn’t a player on the Canadiens’ roster – or, God knows, in the bare-cupboard system – that could be traded for Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Mitch Marner or Morgan Rielly.

Bergevin might come up with a package that could pry Nazem Kadri or Jake Gardiner out of Toronto. But it would have to include Mikhail Sergachev.

On that dispiriting note, I’ll wish the HIO community a happy and healthy summer.

• • •

Comment on the Liveblog by DDPKS:

It was close but the Rangers were better in every area. Rangers were especially better at playing D when protecting the lead.

Habs too often could not keep possession when entering the o-zone or couldn’t obtain controlled possession when dumping the puck in. Their dump and chase was pathetically futile. For sure it’s the players fault that they can’t win puck battles. Often times a hab would dump it in and no other Hab would even be close to retrieving the puck and the Rangers D would have no trouble clearing their zone. Is that also on the players or bad coaching?

Maybe getting scorers is hard but I think the GM should focus on getting top 6 talent who can actually win puck battles.

The usual suspects will get criticized for poor playoff performance but one guy who always manages to avoid this for some reason is Markov. With the exception of one playoffs, he’s always been sorely disappointing offensively in the playoffs and this one was not an exception. If they sign him again he should be paid and played as a 3rd pairing D.

After this latest series loss, it’s clear that one or two of our top six need to be moved and by some miracle maybe a good center can be obtained out of said moves. Our current top 6 doesn’t cut it. Danault is a 3rd line center and should never be included in the regular top 6. I predict at least two of Pleks, Pacioretty, Gallagher & Galchenyuk will not be a Hab in the next two years.

From Waitingforcup:

It is highly unlikely that Molson is changing the coach and GM. The only hope is that the assistants and AHL coach are upgraded so that we can coach up our prospects. Will be more of the same next year.

I think based upon the deployment in the must win game the coach went for the safe, stay at home type player instead of keeping NB in the game and adding an AHLer with some scoring ability. When you cannot score with the guys you have, why not take a flyer on a talented kid. Watching the other series, the other teams all seem to have someone in the line up who they just signed from college or completed their junior career.

This tells me that CJ likes to play safe and using two rookie defensemen (Juulsen and Sergachev) is not likely to happen. The problem we need to upgrade the ability to skate the puck up from the back end as looks like NB days are numbered unless he was actually injured.

And from BKAK72:

Pacioretty…feedback…

“He’s got to give me a reason to give him more minutes here. We’ll see where it goes. We know he’s a really good player, great kid, but we’ve just got to get a little bit more out of him,” (J. Tortarella, SEP 2016)

The home team dominated the game early, but Tanner Glass – of all people – scored the game’s first goal 9:50 in.

Tomas Plekanec won a faceoff to Carey Price’s left, but Glass pounced on the loose puck and roofed it from in tight.

Shots were 31-31.

]]>http://www.hockeyinsideout.com/boone/liveblog/liveblog-rangers-at-canadiens-5/feed6302549857Rangers scrumLiveblog: Canadiens beat Detroit 3-2 in OThttp://www.hockeyinsideout.com/boone/liveblog/liveblog-canadiens-at-detroit-6
http://www.hockeyinsideout.com/boone/liveblog/liveblog-canadiens-at-detroit-6#commentsSat, 08 Apr 2017 21:00:24 +0000http://www.hockeyinsideout.com/?p=91240Alex Galchenyuk – of all people – scored his fifth Overtime goal of the season to end it.

He beat Peter Mrazek 1:42 into OT to win a meaningless game for the Canadiens.

With a shade over a minute left in the middle period, Artturi Lehkonen batted his 18th of the season past Mrazek to make it 2-2.

Dylan Larkin’s laser, 13 minutes into a second period dominated by the Canadiens, had restored the home team’s lead.

Nathan Beaulieu’s power-play rocket from the point beat Mrazek to tie the game at 4:19 of the second.

Frans Nielsen got Detroit on the board with a top-shelf backhand, 10:44 into the game.

The Canadiens win gave them 101 points and the Atlantic Division title.

Less than two minutes into the third period, Artturi Lehkonen fired a laser past Reto Berra for his 15th of the season to give the Canadiens a 2-1 lead.

Then with a few minutes left, Lehkonen took a rebound off the back boards and scored his second to wrap things up.

Alexander Radulov added an empty-netter

Jonathan Marchessault scored his 30th halfway through the second period to tie the game at 1-1.

Charlie Lindgren had no chance on the goal.

late in the period, the Canadiens killed off 68 seconds of a 5-on-3 disadvantage

The Canadiens had many excellent chances early but were held off the board by Reto Berra until 13 minutes into the first period, when Andrew Shaw batted in a short feed by Alex Galchenyuk for his 12th of the season.